Labour Party leader Ed Miliband joined the Bradford West campaign yesterday as he lent his support to the party’s Imran Hussain.

Mr Miliband answered questions at an event hosted by Bradford University, and praised Mr Hussain as the ideal person to represent the constituency.

He said: “I think the most important thing is that the people of Bradford West get a representative who will work the hardest for them and who will seek to represent them in parliament.

“We’ve got a fantastic candidate in Imran Hussain, somebody who grew up locally, somebody who worked as a barrister, someone who has got huge experience on the Council.

“He’s gone round meeting thousands of people here and knows this seat incredibly well, like the back of his hand. And I think he’ll be a great representative. You need somebody who will speak up in Parliament against the unfairness of this budget and Imran Hussain is the candidate who will do that. He will defend Bradford’s pensioners against the attack on them in a budget that has cut taxes for millionaires.”

He added that they were fighting for every vote in the constituency.

“I think the most important thing is that this seat gets a Labour representative,” he said.

He was asked a number of questions on topics such as the North-South divide, the scrapping of the education maintenance allowance, and ways of encouraging more ethnic minorities into politics.

Mr Miliband also spoke about this week’s budget from the coalition Government.

The event was also attended by other Labour politicians, such as the leader of Bradford Council Ian Greenwood and Bradford South MP Gerry Sutcliffe.